We Probably Won't Get Justice For The Sony Hack

Soldiers stand in front of
the podium with portraits of North Korea founder Kim Il-sung and
the late leader Kim Jong-il after a military parade to celebrate
the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang, April 15,
2012.REUTERS/Bobby
Yip

WASHINGTON (AP) — Suspicions that North Korea was behind a
destructive hacking attack against Sony Pictures and a threat
against movie theaters are intensifying calls for tougher U.S.
steps to cut that country's access to hard currency and declare
it once more as a state sponsor of terrorism.

At first glance, U.S. options for responding to the hacking
attack are limited. Bringing the shadowy hackers to justice
appears a distant prospect. A U.S. cyber-retaliation against
North Korea would risk a dangerous escalation. And North Korea is
already targeted by a raft of sanctions over its nuclear weapons
program.

"We don't sell them anything, we don't buy anything from them and
we don't have diplomatic relations," said William Reinsch, a
former senior Commerce Department official who was responsible
for enforcing international sanctions against North Korea and
other countries.

But the U.S. isn't powerless if it concludes Pyongyang was behind
the hack that has prompted Sony to cancel its Christmas Day
release of the movie "The Interview."

While U.S. officials are saying privately that they believe North
Korea was connected to the attack, the White House has not said
so publicly. On Thursday, presidential spokesman Josh Earnest
declined to blame North Korea, which has denied responsibility.
He said he did not want to get ahead of investigations by the
Justice Department and the FBI. Evidence shows the hacking was
carried out by a "sophisticated actor" with "malicious intent,"
he said.

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, said he did not doubt North Korea was involved. He
called for tougher U.S. sanctions to cut Pyongyang's access to
hard currency, by excluding from the U.S. financial system banks
in other countries that hold North Korean funds.

"This is not a just a corporate security issue," Royce told The
Associated Press. "It is an act of aggression against the United
States by a foreign government. "

Legislation for such banking sanctions, sponsored by Royce and
the committee's top-ranking Democrat, passed the House in the
summer but was not taken up by the Senate. Current sanctions
principally aim at preventing North Korea from trading weapons
and acquiring nuclear and missile technology.

The Obama administration has been reluctant to embrace Royce's
approach. The biggest impact would be felt by banks in China,
complicating U.S. efforts to curry better ties with Beijing.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official and specialist
on Korea, said if U.S. officials connect North Korea not only to
the hacking attack but the threats to carry out 9/11-style
attacks against movie theaters, a case could be made to put North
Korea again on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. That
designation now is held by Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba. North
Korea was on the list for 20 years until it was taken off in 2008
by the Bush administration during nuclear negotiations. Royce
said putting Pyongyang back on would be warranted.

While North Korea has denied it was involved, its government
issued a statement earlier this month describing the hack as a
"righteous deed." The movie, a comedy, is about a plot to
assassinate North Korea's totalitarian leader, Kim Jong Un.

U.S. detective work pointing to North Korea appears so far to be
largely circumstantial, based on subtle clues in the hacking
tools left behind and the involvement of at least one computer in
Bolivia previously traced to other attacks tied to the North
Koreans. Still, the evidence has been considered conclusive
enough that a U.S. official told the AP that investigators have
now connected the attack to North Korea.

Earnest said the investigation was progressing. He said President
Barack Obama's national security advisers were considering a
range of options for a "proportional response."

Victor Cha, who served as Asia policy director in the George W.
Bush White House, said despite the long history of censuring
North Korea over its weapons development, there's no diplomatic
playbook to follow in a case like this. "On the nuclear and
missile side we have established a pattern of interactions
between states on how to respond, but in the cyber world there's
no rules right now," he said.

Washington struggles to keep its interaction with North Korea on
an even keel at the best of times, through periodic nuclear and
rocket tests and dire threats of military reprisals. The U.S.
retains nearly 30,000 troops in neighboring South Korea.

Multination talks aimed at getting North Korea to give up its
nuclear arsenal in exchange for aid have stalled for several
years, and Pyongyang has been frustrated by what it considers a
U.S. reluctance to engage in dialogue. The animosity has built as
the U.S. has supported a U.N. inquiry into North Korea's dire
human rights record.